


Ash

by Oliver_Ravenwood



Series: Tumblr Promtps [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Earth sprite!Hanji, Fire sprite!Eren, M/M, Water sprite!Levi, based off a tumblr prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-23 01:56:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4858775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oliver_Ravenwood/pseuds/Oliver_Ravenwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi's a water sprite. He's had the unfortunate luck of becoming fond of a young fire sprite.</p><p>The fire sprite, (Eren, as he's called) only appears when a spark turns to flame.</p><p>Fire is a rarity next to Levi's river. Human's only come once in a very blue moon, and all other fires are almost nonexistent.</p><p>Every day, Levi wished to see those beautiful emerald eyes just once more.</p><p>He carried on – much like his river – always rushing forward, until he could see his beloved fire sprite again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ash

**Author's Note:**

> Why hello!
> 
> This was based off of a prompt a dear friend of mine gave me.  
> The prompt was "Do you ever wonder if the world would be better off without you?" with any pairing I wanted (which, it took for fucking ever to pick out the pairing)
> 
> So, I hope you enjoy

    The fire spirit hummed thoughtfully while he watched a group of humans sitting around a small campfire, laughing and joking with each other as they cooked their supper of roasted apples.

    The spirit, Eren is his name, shifted on his spot uncomfortably. He sat on a flat platform-like rock atop a waterfall, looking over the human’s festivities, along with the waters rushing from the waterfall, down to the river that flowed through the land.

    Levi’s river.

    Levi is a water spirit. His designated section he lives in holds this mostly shaded, tree-lined river. Along with the waterfall Eren sat upon.

    Eren sighed, his hopes steadily lowering. He only had a limited time before the human people snuffed out the flames they gathered around, soon he would flicker away, along with those flames.

    After the flames were extinguished, Eren would disappear until another fire was lit, by either natural means or human hands. He would then spark back to life and start to look for his beloved water spirit again. A water spirit which seemed to be down the river, judging by his absence.

    Eren stood, looking around the platform. It seemed to be more worn down than it had last time he was here. How long had it been this time? Levi’s river was in a small, secluded valley not many travelers ever visited, despite the land being very fertile and lively. Taking several steps backward, Eren had given up hope. Levi was most likely dealing with that blockage that was in the river last time he had been here.

    Or… Was that still an issue? For all Eren knew, it could have been years since the last humans passed through here, stopping to camp by Levi’s river.

    “Next time,” the fire sprite softly mumbled. He turned on his heel and made toward the path leading down away from the rocks and to the grassy, leveled ground below. Any tears that may have formed in Eren’s bright eyes, evaporated instantly. Next time. When would that ‘next time’ be? He ambled slowly by the river’s bank, arms swinging freely with his steps when his wrist was suddenly taken and he was jerked off his balance and into the cool waters.

    Almost as soon as he was enveloped by the body of water, Eren’s body flickered and he disappeared out of the person’s grasp.

    “What the bloody hell?” a human griped at the fire suddenly going down. “Connie, grab a log to feed the fire.” A young human boy obeyed, and stoked the fire. It steadily came back to life – as did Eren. He flickered into the vision of the person in the river.

    The spirit stood confused for a second by the campfire, examining his hands closely, flipping the ash flaked limbs over and dusting them off before looking up to his attacker.

    He froze at the sight of a very familiar figure hoisting itself up on a rock in the basin of the water fall. Levi pulled himself to his feet on the rock and dusted his knees and clothes off before finally raising his head to look at Eren. A smile fell lovingly on his lips while he looked the fire sprite over.

    “Oh my flame,” Eren breathed. He slowly regained control of his actions before he bolted forward quickly. He quickly hopped over the path of stones until he jumped on the one Levi stood upon. He grabbed the water spirit in a tight embrace, burying his face into Levi’s neck. His nose nuzzled the dripping wet flesh happily, relishing in their closeness.

    “Are you trying to extinguish yourself again?!” Levi cried out as the force of Eren running into him almost caused him to fall off the edge of the rock and into the clear waters below. He had barely steadied them both in time.

    “Extinguish  _myself_?” Eren exclaimed and drew back, still gripping Levi’s shoulders. “You were the one that pulled me into the water!”

    Levi’s laughed bubbled softly from his throat. “I suppose I did.” He grinned easily up at Eren.

    The fire spirit smiled along with him and relaxed his grip on Levi’s shoulders. The smile faded slightly as Eren took in Levi’s features fondly. “I… I thought you weren’t going to come.” He confessed it quietly and the shorter of the two almost didn’t hear it over the sound of the rushing waters around them.

    The spirit’s eyebrows furrowed at the statement. His cold hand was brought up until it cupped Eren’s cheek gently. The wrinkled pad of his thumb stroked gently under the fire sprite’s eye. “Why would you think that?”

    Eren’s shoulder shrugged helplessly. “Maybe you were still dealing with that dam down the river?”

    Levi’s lips twitched upwards into an amused smile. “That… was resolved _some_  time ago, Eren.”

    The taller spirit’s eyebrows drew together. If he recalled correctly, that dam was a huge event. It was supposed it would take near four seasons to resolve it.

    “Levi, how long has it been since I was here last?” he asked carefully.

    Levi’s eyes dulled significantly. His eyes shut and his nose scrunched in thought. He calculated the time silently. “It’s been…” his eyes fluttered open to look at the fire spirit. “A long time.” Levi shuffled forward to wrap his arms around Eren’s torso. “And it’s so good to have you back.” Eren dipped his head forward and buried his face in Levi’s dark hair.

     This was perfect. Even though it had only seemed like no time at all to Eren, it had been years for Levi. More than he’d care to admit. But the wait was worth it to have Eren in his arms again.

    The time went quickly. Levi told Eren all about what he had missed through the years as they sat on top of the waterfall. Eren smiled softly at Levi, who talked animatedly about a earth sprite down the river called Hanji. She seemed to have befriended Levi through the means of kicking dirt into his river and then declaring the two of them now friends, despite her only being in the area to visit another sprite of her kind. She lived in a small district without as much as a stream running through the land. She came to Levi out of pure curiosity and left with an excited promise to visit soon.

    “I have missed so much,” Eren laughed quietly. He lay on his back, his hands folded under his head while his eyes tracked the clouds above. His head lolled to the side and his eyes flicked to Levi. “I’d like to meet this Hanji sometime. She sounds nice.”

    “She’s insufferable,” Levi sighed, shaking his head. “You’re lucky you haven’t met her.”

     Eren hummed, returning to his cloud watching. The two fell into a comfortable silence. Levi shifted; folding his legs under himself and leaning back, supporting himself on his hands. Eren gave a silent sigh to the wispy clouds above. “Levi, I,” he started slowly, keeping his eyes towards the sky.

    Eren’s nose twitched suddenly and again seconds later.

    “What is it?” Levi asked, glancing towards Eren.

    Eren didn’t respond, but slowly sat up, his nose filled with the odor of campfire smoke.

    It was much stronger than it had been before, and the wind hadn’t picked up any more than it had all day. He scrambled up to the edge of the rock, his bright eyes searching for the human’s fire.

    “Eren, what is it?” Levi’s voice filled with alarm at the frozen fire sprite. He quickly joined Eren in looking out over the edge of the rock. His silver eyes widened at the humans scrambling around on the ground below, desperately trying to put out the fire that had gotten out of their control.

    Before Levi could think to do anything, Eren had snapped out of his shock and he was off. He quickly made his way down the rocky surface, down to the ground.

    His mind was in a haze.

     _Get the fire out._

_Extinguish it._

_Hurry._

_Put it out._

_Hurry Eren!_

     _How could I let this happen?!_

    He was a fire sprite. He was supposed to guard his fire carefully. He wasn’t supposed to let it get out of control like this. He had failed in his duty by letting the flame grow this much.

    The humans screamed at each other as they tried to extinguish the flames. Their voices all muddled together in Eren’s brain to where he couldn’t tell what any of them were saying. He tried to concentrate on the problem at hand. The campfire had grown so that it caught onto a dead tree, acting as an accelerant to the heat, allowing it to spread further. The people were having trouble transporting the water from the river to the fire and resorted to trying to stamp most of it out.

    Eren set to his task of the dead tree. He panted heavily as his hands patted over the wood in a flurry; scraping his hands towards himself, hoping to draw the element towards him. It flickered over his hands and in between his fingers, bending to his direction. The flames danced towards him, the trail behind it quickly going cold.

    Eren’s head jerked up every now and again to check Levi and the human’s progress at putting out the fire near the river.

    Sometime later, the flames were under control. All was extinguished; save a small bundle of dried grass burning in Eren’s cupped hands. He curled up under a nearby apple tree, watching the people settle back down and get ready to camp down for the night.

    Eren sat silently, staring at the little bundle in his hands, his thumb occasionally brushing over the grass to move it around his palms.

    He didn’t look up when Levi sat down next to him, picking at blades of grass under him.

    “Do you ever think the world would be better off without you, Levi?” he asked quietly.

    “Just because this happened doesn’t mean you shouldn’t exist,” Levi told him.

    “It isn’t just about this.” Eren looked over to the water sprite. “All my element ever does is destroy, right? It doesn’t help anything. All it does it burn things up.”

    Levi sighed through his nose “The plants will grow back. Plus, that old dead tree was an eyesore. I, for one, am glad it’s gone.” He stared up at Eren for a few seconds before shifting so his knee could knock the fire sprites’. “Besides, fire is good for a lot of things.”

    Eren grunted. The bundle in his hands was steadily being consumed by the flame. He’d be gone soon.

    Levi looked at the grass in Eren’s hands, frowning sadly as it deteriorated.

    “I’ll miss you, Eren.”

    The fire sprite picked his head up, locking eyes with Levi. “I’ll be back tomorrow. They’ll need something to cook their food on.”

    Levi hesitated before slowly nodding at Eren, who now flickered in and out of his sight as the flames died out. He reached up and brushed a straw strand of hair away from Eren’s eyes, giving a sad smile before the fire sprite completely disappeared.

    There was no fire lit the next morning. The humans moved on quickly. The grass, blackened from the night before eventually turned green again. The spring turned into summer, which in turn became fall.

    Every day, Levi wished to see those beautiful emerald eyes again. He carried on – much like his river – always rushing forward, until he could see his beloved fire sprite again.

**Author's Note:**

> I imagined the sprites to be these innocent little creatures, very pure. (That's why Levi's mouth is he cleanest I have ever wrote for him, except for when he was a kid)
> 
> There should be another chapter in this. Half prologue/half epilogue.
> 
> But I dunno.
> 
> Hey, I would seriously love it if you dropped a comment, telling me what you thought of this!!  
> My tumblr is Allie-Ravenwood


End file.
